Dear Parents and Carers,

Last Friday’s Book Week celebration was enjoyed by all. It was wonderful to welcome so many parents, carers and grandparents to the Book Week Parade. Amongst a day full of fun activities was the visiting illustrator, Serena Geddes. The children (K-6) thoroughly enjoyed the workshop with Serena, who spoke of her love of visual storytelling. Serena, also thoroughly enjoyed participating in the day’s events, especially the Book Week Parade. From Kindergarten to Year 6, the children’s costumes were amazing. I must thank the parents and carers for your time and effort in organising such fantastic outfits. A special thank you must go to the Book Week Committee (Mrs Scapin, Mrs Kissell, Mrs Idstein and Mrs Ockenden) for planning and organising a wonderful Book Week celebration for our students.

Last week I received the news that Mrs Renee Maguire (Religious Education Coordinator / 4 Green teacher) has accepted a teaching position at St Edward’s Catholic Primary School in Tamworth to commence next term. Mrs Maguire has made a significant contribution to St John’s over the last eighteen months as Acting Religious Coordinator and her caring and considerate leadership will be missed. On behalf of the St John’s community, I would like to wish Mrs Maguire all the best as she commences this new chapter in her life. Mrs Bianca Koczka, who currently teaches 4 Green each Thursday and Friday, will teach 4 Green full-time from the commencement of next term. 

Thank you to the parents and carers who safely access our afternoon car lines on a daily basis. Car lines in both Jerematta and Werowi Street offer a convenient and safe drop-off and pick-up for families. For the efficient operation of this arrangement, there is a need for all parents/carers to adhere to road rules and our school practices, which have been developed with safety at the forefront of our planning. It is important that families accessing the convenience of car lines do so responsibly and in a safe manner.

Therefore, parents and carers are requested to;

• Display your family name upon approach
• Follow the directions of staff at all times
• Always move to the furthest most point in the designated drop-off and pick-up zone
• Only drop-off and pick-up children within the allocated NO PARKING area
• Not queue, blocking traffic flow in surrounding streets and roundabouts.
• Regular police patrols ensure the safety of all in and around school zones; if you are operating contrary to the signage, you risk a substantial fine.

Please be safe and have a wonderful week.

 
Kind regards,

Mr Matt Downes
Acting Principal

‘Let us try to keep God with us by charity in thought, word and act.'
Mary MacKillop  (1890)

Father's Day Mass

We invite all Fathers and Grandfathers to celebrate Fathers Day on the 1st of September at 9:30 am, followed by a shared recess.

World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation and Season of Creation

This year’s celebration for the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation is the beginning of the Season of Creation. The Season of Creation goes from September 1 to October 4, unites the entire Christian family across the world in a celebration of prayer and action to protect our common home. As followers of Christ from around the globe, we share a common call to care for creation. We are co-creators and part of all that God has made. Our wellbeing is interwoven with the wellbeing of the Earth.This year, the theme for the Season of Creation is Let justice and peace flow and is inspired by the words of the prophet Amos: “Let justice flow on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream” (5:24)

In his message for the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation 2023, Pope Francis reminds us that “We can and we must prevent the worst from happening. Truly, much can be done provided we come together like so many streams, brooks and rivulets, merging finally in a mighty river to irrigate the life of our marvellous planet and our human family for generations to come. So let us join hands and take bold steps to Let Justice and Peace Flow throughout our world”.
 
We give praise to God expressing our thanks for the marvellous works that have been entrusted to our care, and we ask for God’s help as we take action to protect our planet and all of its creatures.

(© 2023 Season of Creation Celebration Guide and © Catholic Earthcare Liturgy Notes 2023)

Dates for your diary

Prayer Intentions

We pray for all families in our school community who are in need of our prayers, as well as our country and world.

St Mary of the Cross MacKillop, pray for us.
St Joseph, Pray for us.
St John the Evangelist, pray for us.

Renee Maguire
Religious Education Coordinator

During next week, we will be having our Student Wellbeing Afternoons for Term 3. The dates for these afternoons are as follows:

Tuesday 29 August – Year 3 & Year 4
Thursday 31 August – Year 5 & Year 6
Friday 1 September – Kindergarten, Year 1 & Year 2

As with previous Student Wellbeing Afternoons, students will be able to choose and participate in fun and engaging activities that promote their wellbeing. As part of these Wellbeing Afternoons, the students will be provided with a sausage sizzle for lunch. All sausages will be gluten free and gluten free bread will be provided for students with a gluten intolerance. If your child does not eat sausage sizzles or requires more food for lunch than this, please ensure that you pack extra food in their lunchbox.

To help make these afternoons even more enjoyable, students are once again encouraged to wear mufti clothes to school on the day their grade has their wellbeing afternoon.

On behalf of the school community, we would like to thank the Parents and Friends Association for their support of this initiative by again funding the cost of the sausage sizzle for the students.

We look forward to fun and enjoyable afternoons, promoting and supporting student wellbeing across the school.

This year at St John's we had a number of students who participated in the Premier's Reading Challenge. The Challenge aimed to encourage a love of reading for leisure in students and enable them to experience quality literature. It was not a competition, but a voluntary challenge to each student to read more widely. This year the Challenge started on 27 February and ended on 18 August 2023. We congratulate all of the students who took part. 

Those students who were successful in completing the change had to read a minimum of 30 books (K-2) and 20 books (3-6). These books were a combination of Premier Reading Challenge book choices and personal book choices. 

What can you expect?

• Pre-purchase ride bands are $35 (or on the night $40) or $8 per ride (on sale one week prior)
• Over 16 Market Stalls, Rides, Show bags, Farm Animals
• Market Stalls include hair braiding, pet products, airbrush tattoos, face painting, candles, toys, specialty nuts and much, much more!
• Food Trucks include: Burgers, Ice Cream Trucks, Twist Potatoes, Pizza, Doughnuts and Vietnamese and Coffee Van
• ATM will be available; however, bring your change!
• Chocolate Wheel from 6pm – 7pm
• BYO Chairs and Picnic Blankets

How can you help?

• We will be seeking volunteers to support on the night in the coming weeks.
• We are also seeking support for prizes for our chocolate wheel. Do you know someone that could donate a prize to support us? If so, please bring in donations to the office or email the P&F; pandf@sjddow.catholic.edu.au

To the following students who are celebrating their birthday in September — we wish you a very happy birthday and hope you have a great day.

Brain Cancer Walk in Wollongong at Beaton Park

Xavier from Kinder Red is walking for the 2nd year with his family, for his uncle Jacob (Purcell) who was one of the carpenters involved in the construction of the renovated undercover area and also attended St John's.  This year, the walk is on the 22nd of October and Xavier's family have registered to walk again as a team under the name: WalkWithJupz

If you would like to help raise funds for team WalkWithJupz please click the link below.

Anyone can join the Burton team also. If you register and select 'join a team', they are called walkwithjupz.

How to use Slide Over on your iPad

Effective Term 4, 2023

The current economic climate has resulted in rising costs for raw materials, production, and transportation, which directly affects our garments. We understand that an increase in uniforms concerns families and want to assure you that we have carefully reviewed prices in relation to the cost of each garment. Please note that these are variable as they are dependent on the specifications of each item, including source, composition, construction, and volume. Lowes continues to explore alternative production methods to offer cost-saving solutions.

To minimise the impact on families, we have capped the increases for your distinctive garments and will continue to offer 20% off during our sale days.